SLO Tribune
October 5, 1909
FOUL MURDER AROUSED CITY.
The Wife of Ah Luis Killed While Asleep
After “Lifting” a Box of Coin and Jewels Burglar Murders Woman that He May Take Bracelets From Her Wrists
The hand of murder, cruel, red handed, dastardly murder, shocked the city of San Luis Obispo yesterday morning. In broad daylight, a murderous fiend, bent on robbery shot a sleeping woman, as she lay by her two small children, snatched the gold bracelets from her wrists and a box of valuables from behind a door at the foot of the bed, and made a complete get-a-way leaving no trace or clew upon which to fasten his identity and call him to judgment of the law, which demands in the name of the people of California vengeance for a most atrocious act.
Gon Ying Louis, wife of Ah Louis, the well known merchant and capitalist of Chinatown, was the victim. While she was fast asleep in her room on the second floor of the brick building at the corner of Palm and Chorro streets, a burglar, who knew well the surroundings, the habits and the customs of the family, stole quietly up the stairway, which leads from a door opening upon the sidewalk on the Chorro street side, entered the room known to be that of Mrs. Louis and there fired the shot which instantly killed the defenseless woman. His victim wore two heavy gold jeweled bracelets, each worth in the neighborhood of $200. At the foot of the bed, wrapped in a cloth, were two strong boxes, one unlocked and the other locked. The unlocked box was left untouched. It contained only a few trinkets belonging to the children. The box which was locked contained gold coin, diamonds and solid gold jewelry valued at $5000. In the box also were some deeds, a bank book and papers. This box was taken together with a bunch of keys and the cloth in which the boxes had been wrapped. All the money and jewelry in the box were the property of Mrs. Louis. Some of the jewelry had been given to her years ago and had been preserved as keep sakes of the past. Several pieces were of antique Chinese design and very much cherished and treasured. For years it had been the custom of Mrs. Louis to keep this box with her individual treasures at the foot of the bed in her room. She wanted them always near her. The heavy gold bracelets were worn night and day. She never removed them from her wrists. It is a superstition with the Chinese women that to wear the bracelets by night they will have only pleasant dreams.
Shortly after 6 o’clock Ah Louis left his home to go to Arroyo Grande in answer to a telephone message of the day before from Mr. L. C. Routzahn to the Seed Farm to consider business matters connected with seed growing in which the two are interested. Mr. Louis has considerable land under cultivation in the county devoted to the arising of seeds which he disposes of to Mr. Routzahn, and it was in reference to the next year’s crop that he was called to Arroyo to consult upon.
Little did Ah Louis think, as he left his home, that he would soon be summoned back by the sad news of the murder of his devoted wife.
The burglar, intent on pillaging the house and ready to resort to murder in the act, had evidently known of the intention of Ah Louis to leave on the early morning train for Arroyo Grande. No doubt he stood somewhere nearby waiting and watching for the departure of the head of the family. Soon after Ah Louis left the house, leaving the door at the stairway entrance on the sidewalk unlocked, the burglar stole in and committed the crime.
It was just twenty minutes to 7 o’clock when the shot was fired which killed Mrs. Louis. Laine May Louis, aged 12 years, heard the shot and for a moment said nothing. Following it she heard footsteps in the hallway and the hasty departure of some person down the stairway. At first she thought that some one had fired a shot outside and that the person walking in the building was her mother intent on finding out what was the matter. Following this immediately a three year old child in the room of Mrs. Louis cried out and May hurried in to see what was the matter. A horrible sight met her gaze. Her mother lay with her head upon a blood bespattered pillow. Young Louis, a son aged 15 years, heard the shot and he went to the window fronting on the Palm street side of the building. Had he only gone to a window on the Chorro street side he could have been enabled to see the fleeing burglar and murderer and there would be some means of identification at hand.
At the time of the shooting, Mrs. Louis was sleeping in her room with her two youngest children aged 3 years and fifteen months respectively in the bed with her. In the same room in another bed was sleeping Laine Tye Louis aged 17 years. Laine Tye was not awakened by the report of the pistol. Young Louis hurried to the Sheriff’s office to give the alarm of the murder of his mother and when Deputy Sheriffs Walsh and Taylor, City Marshal Johnson and a Tribune scribe arrived at the house soon after the dastardly deed they found a frightened little band of children about the bed where their mother lay dead. It was a sad, sad scene. Death had come instantaneously to Mrs. Louis. The burglar had held the pistol close to her right temple as she lay slumbering and sent a bullet crashing through the head, severing the main arteries and tearing through the brain, coming out just above the left ear. There had been no struggle, and not even the twitching or contraction of a muscle. From peaceful sleep to instant death was the transition.
Next Page - CORONER NOTIFIED
